Jeanie the Sweetsie Girl

When Malcolm and Thelma were living in San Francisco, their dear friend Bonnie Odell lived in the same apartment building and had a little brown-eyed girl named Judy. "Oh! What a fun idea!" they said. "Why don't we have one of those?" So they did!

Malcolm said, "Then come 1939 there was a gleam in someone's eye about a Jean coming along, so we moved to Berkeley at that time." As discussed in a previous post, they moved to 814 Cragmont in Berkeley where they had a yard for kids to play in and their "$10,000 view" of the San Francisco Bay.

Baby Jean

Jeanie was born 14 January 1940 and was a joy to the family. As the baby of the family, there were lots of pictures of her.

Thelma and Jean Merrill, 1940, Berkeley, California.

Malcolm and Jean Merrill, 1940.

Jean and Thelma Merrill, 1940.

Jean and Thelma Merrill.
(Picture processed 24 April 1940).

Jean and Thelma Merrill, 1940.

Kay Sprinkle, Betty Alden, Jeannie Merrill, Judy Odell.
Muir Woods National Monument, Marin County, California (Picture processed 24 Aug 1940)

Thelma and Jean Merrill, 1940.

Jean Merrill, 1940.

Jean Merrill, 1940.

Malcolm and Jean Merrill, 1940.

Jean and Thelma Merrill, 1940.

Toddler

When she was old enough, Don and Bruce would often watch Jeanie when their parents were out. They made up a little song about this experience:

Oh Jeannie is a sweetsie girl, 

She is like no other, 

But when she’s left alone with us, 

She always wants her mother. (Waaa!)

    

and then they would continue on with a part of "The Silly Song" from Seven Dwarfs:

Ho hum the tune is dumb

The words don't mean a thing

Isn't this a silly song

For anyone to sing?

Here are some more photos of Jeanie as a little girl.

Jeanie Merrill

Jeanie Merrill

Thelma and Jean Merrill

Thelma, Jean and Malcolm Merrill

Here is an Easter photo of Jean with her cousin Judy Adams (daughter of Claude & Audene Merrill Adams, Malcolm's sister).

Jean Merill, Judy Adams.  Adams' house in Merced, California, about 1942.

Jean Merrill, Lee Adams, Harris & Judy Adams, Don Merrill, Bruce Merrill.
Claude & Audene Merrill Adams' house in Merced, California, about 1942.

When I was going through Malcolm's various boxes full of travel stuff, I came across large negative (3x4 inches or something). When I scanned it, it turned out to be this wonderful, sharp picture of Thomas Teancum Holdaway with his granddaughter Jeanie Merrill. I love the contrast between his wrinkled old skin and her smooth baby face.

Thomas Teancum Holdaway and Jean Merrill, about 1943.

Big Brothers

Don and Bruce loved their little sister and helped her to always do what was right. Malcolm and Thelma said of Jeanie:

Malcolm: She was a cute little gal....Don and Bruce kept her pretty well under control. If she ever got out of line, they’d say, “Oh, Jeanie. We don’t do that,” and she’d just straighten right up.

Thelma: One time Jeanie said, “Damn,” and Don said, “Oh, Jeanie! You can’t say that word until you get as old as mother.” haha! ...Jeanie was a darling little girl, and so cute. Our friends said that Don and Bruce were the taters and meat, and Jeanie was the dessert. She always adored her brothers, and they always adored her. So there was real happiness in our family when Jeanie came along.

Jeanie on Don's back. (Don appears to be wearing a Santa hat).

Don and Bruce had 814 Cragmont all wired up with speakers. Thelma recalled:

Don was really very good with electronics and so he and Bruce had a room downstairs and they had a radio and they could play things on it and they could record things and so they put a loudspeaker upstairs under my sink and there was a commercial about Colgate toothpaste.  It was  - brush your  teeth with toothpaste, Colgate dental cream and then there was a big boomy voice that said – what a toothpaste.  So – they could cut all that out and suddenly – I was doing dishes and out from under my feet would come voice saying – WHAT A TOOTHPASTE!  Oh trickers!  That was fun.

I found this video online with the part of the TV commercial she was talking about. (The full commercial is awfully cheesy). (Click "Skip Ad" if necessary).

Reading

Jean enjoyed having these wonderful older brothers who were good to her. And when they were off to school, her mom (Thelma) would read to her—she was a great reader. They would go to the library and check out great books, like the Newberry winners, and she got a great education like that. So it was great having brothers on the one hand, but getting some individual attention like an only child at other times.

Jean’s favorite books included the Little House on the Prairie books. She also went through various phases. During the “horse phase,” she read Marguerite Henry’s books about horses. When she was about 12, she got interested in ships, so she read all of Howard Peas’s sea stories, in which he often had the people exit the San Francisco Bay and experience “the first long roll of the Pacific”. (When it came to Moby Dick, Thelma said, “I learned more about whales than I wanted to know.”)

I love this picture of Thelma reading to Jeannie.

Thelma and Jean Merrill reading, about 1942.

Julia Harmon

Jeanie had a dear friend named Julia Harmon who lived across the street. They played on hobby horses, especially in their favorite vacant lot, at least until some man came along and built there. (They called that guy "Snooty Noodlenose.") One day Thelma saw Jeanie sneaking across the street to the Harmon's house while they were away on vacation. When she asked Jeanie what she was doing, Jeanie said that she was feeding Julia's "horse."

Here is a series of pictures of the two of them over the years, often on the first day of school.

Julia Harmon, Jean Merrill

Julia Harmon, Jean Merrill

Julia Harmon, Jean Merrill.

Julia Harmon, Jean Merrill

Jean Merrill, Julia Harmon

Jean Merrill and Julia Harmon in Junior High School.

Jean Merrill, Julia Harmon, on vacation near Clear Lake, California, around 1950 or 1951.

 In fact, they were friends for so long that they were around when color was invented!

Jean Merrill and Julia Harmon. First day of school, September 1953.

Growing up

Here are some final pictures of Jean as she grew up.

Jeanie and Malcolm Merrill.

Thelma, Bruce, Jean, Malcolm and Don Merrill.

Malcolm, Jean, Thelma and Bruce Merrill

I think this is my favorite picture of my mom as a little girl. You can just tell that she and her dad loved each other.

Jean and Malcolm Merrill

Jean Merrill

Jean Merrill

Bruce, Jean and Don Merrill, 1949.
Utah State University, Logan, Utah.

Jean Merrill, 1949.
814 Cragmont, Berkeley, California

Jean Merrill 

Jean Merrill, February 1954.

Jean Merrill, March 1954.

Jean Merrill, March 1954. A bonafide teenager!

Jean Merrill, May 1954.

Jean Merrill, riding a horse at the ranch in Swan Lake, Idaho. August 9, 1954.

Her dress matches the flowers!

Jean Merrill.

I'm sure thankful for my dear mother. From all reports, she was a great girl growing up, and it's obvious that that just never stopped. What a sweetheart.

In our next episode, we step back and review some stories about Grandpa Malcolm Merrill's own grandpa, Marriner Wood Merrill, a Mormon pioneer and apostle.